ATG – Night Music 24 – Another Long One

Director Harold Jurkiewicz has not been given enough time to work with the David Reynolds our Lighting Director, so much of the evening consisted of David lighting a scene and Harold giving adjustment instructions. “More light here.” “Deeper shadows over there.” “Darker blue in the background. etc., etc.” Harold calls the process “painting my show with light and shadows.” It’s time consuming, but ultimately beautiful.

We also worked on the scene changes under the direction of James Mayne our Technical Director. Maybe I should write a parody to “The Glamorous Life” to describe this process. It would go something like this …

Take off the set piece
La, la, la.
Bring on the set piece
La, la, la.
Take off the set piece
La, la, la.
Heigh-Ho the crew member’s life.

Before this is over I’ll give the crew another nod or two. They’re doing a great job. I don’t have all the names right now.

We got to a point in the rehearsal where we were moving from Act I to Act II. Suddenly, there was Harold in front of the stage pretending to conduct the drawing for the 50/50 Raffle. That raffle is a long-standing Guild tradition. I’m always surprised by how much money it raises. At times, the winner’s share is over $200. The Guild has a lot of patrons who come in the door on show night with their 50/50 ticket money in their hands.

Act II of “A Little Night Music” takes place outdoors in the country. Scenic designer Jennifer Maiseloff has created beautiful birch trees that can be moved on and off stage (La, la, la) or moved from one place to another on the stage. The trees, lit by Reynold’s beautiful lighting, create a perfect setting for the outdoor scenes.

During the show a fog machine is used to create a haze. The stage lights filtering through Maiseloff’s trees looks like sunlight filtering through the fog in a woodlot in Spring. Very creative.

During the dining room scene a twelve foot long dinner table is created out of two six foot long tables. It actually comes on and off stage (La, la, la) fairly quickly.

We had another pants issue. Count Malcolm (Brett Reynolds) is taking off his pants to bed Desirée, who isn’t at all interested in being bedded, when he looks through the bedroom window and sees his wife Charlotte (Valerie Haas) and Fredrik (Tom Murphy) together out on the lawn on a bench. He hobbles across the room with his pants around his ankles, headed for his dueling pistols. Brett had a difficult time getting his pants up creating another “stop the show” moment to the enjoyment of the cast and crew.

Ah, community theatre.

One more rehearsal then a “dark” night and then it’s “another op’nin’.